Repo Skip Tracing: Locating a Missing Vehicle Owner

When a person skips town and moves to an unknown location to avoid having his vehicle repossessed, it can be difficult to locate the car. Repo men have to be creative, organized and investigative to locate the new address of the person. When running a "skip trace" for a repo, it's important to keep track of all types of information, whether it may seem relevant or not. Knowing whether the person is married or not, where his family lives, and even where he may go to church can give you that final address or car location you need to repossess the vehicle.

Step 1

Review the credit bureaus every few days. Any change to his credit history will register here, like a new credit card or a bank card application. A change of address to a credit account will register here. However, this does not mean the skipper is going to register a new address. Still, you should continually check at all three credit bureaus--Experian, Equifax and TransUnion--as information differs.

Step 2

Make a note of when his license is up for renewal and when the tag expires. Search the DMV records to find this information. However, this may not help either, as many skippers will drive on an expired license or use someone else's tags. But keep track of the information and check periodically for changes.

Step 3

Visit the local courthouse. Review court records and check for scheduled court appearance dates. This way you can appear on the date and follow him to the car. Look through the civil list of "process served". A person who is running from the repo man has lots of other people trying to get funds and who are resorting to the legal system. A process serve will have the current address. All you have to do is write it down and go get the car. Look through civil records that will give you information on the subject like attorney names and addresses, and other useful information. These records may not give you the subject's address, but they will give you useful information that can lead to other sources.

Step 4

Research and keep track of important information like Social Security number, marital status, employment records, old friends, girlfriends, hangouts and hobbies. A person usually works within the same industry, or finds similar hobbies and hangouts in new towns. If he has a family, he may go back to see them. Look for the person at family homes during the holidays. Many cars are repossessed on Thanksgiving and Christmas when the skipper visits family homes.